PKR-linked pressure group Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) has told of how settlers were duped by embattled Federal Land Development Authority’s factories over the grading of palm oil using duplicate receipts with a hidden clause.

SAMM’s Felda settlers and rural bureau spokesman Azlan Ishak published the two receipts on its website, showing the receipt kept by settlers and Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd respectively, the latter (left) bearing a fine print that the "seller [settler] admits that the quality of BTS (fresh crops) is below 18 percent KPG (extraction grade). The selling of BTS is based on the seller’s wishes and the seller agrees to the payment."

However, the same statement is not found on the receipt retained by the settler.

Azlan said only "crazy people will sell their crops by limiting themselves the maximum quality of their goods" in order to sell them cheaply.

He added that some settlers chose to ‘steal’ their own crops and sell them to Felcra instead, as it has no factory but only a hub to collect oil palm which will be sold back to Felda’s factories to process at 20-25 percent KPG for the same oil palm taken by Felda’s factories at 15 to 18 percent.

He claimed that the practice was still being continued in spite of the court victory by settlers over the matter.

"Imagine, in decades, how many billions Felda has cheated the settlers?” asked Azlan.

The Auditor-General report has criticised the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) for violating its ceiling on investments of listed and non-listed shares three years in a row.

Felda has set an annual limit of 24 percent of its funds to be used in the investment of shares but from 2008 to 2010, had invested more than its stipulated ceiling as stated in its group investment policy and strategy manual.

The limit is to reduce risk to Felda funds which comprise of Felda's accounts and settlers' accounts.

The manual is approved by the Felda Board of directors.

Felda's investments were :

2008 RM713.2 million (31.8 percent of total funds)

2009 RM2.282 billion (70.7 percent)

2010 RM3.140 billion (68.5 percent)This, the Auditor-General warned, would affect Felda's financial capability and affect its daily operations if the investments did not generate profit.

It noted that while some of the shares obtained profit, 12 counters made losses between Dec 31, 2008 and Nov 30, 2010.

Eight of the counters had paid dividends to Felda amounting to RM33.11 million between 2008 and 2010.

Prior to the revelations in the Auditor-General's report, there were allegations that Felda's cash reserves were low.

It was reported in 2010 by the deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Ahmad Maslan, that Felda's cash reserves had depletedby almost RM3 billion in five years.

This led to the National Children of Felda Settlers' Association (Anak) lodging reports to the police and the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission.

The Auditor-General, Ambrin Buang, noted that while Felda managed to dividends in excess of 10 per cent, it had to do more research on its investments to ensure optimum returns and reduce exposure to high risk investments.

Risda blasted for construction delays

Another subsidiary company Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda), was chided for delay in the construction and completion of houses for smallholders,

Not only that Risda was also blamed for the poor workmanship in the construction of the new houses.

The AG team visited houses in Selangor and Terengganu in Oct 2010 and noticed that 75 houses were not built according to the right specifications and the work unsatisfactory.

It listed 42 houses visited that suffered cracks, bedrooms built not according to specs (30), leaks in the ceiling (11) and other problems.

The report lists poor monitoring of the project contractor. It also found that some of the recipients of the houses built by Risda, were not qualified to receive them.

It proposed better vetting of candidates to ensure they qualified to receive assistance.

It is well known that Felda is Umno’s strongest fortress, and the fate of at least 40 parliamentary seats in the coming election will be determined by voters who live in the resettlement schemes.

Anwar’s presence at Felda Palong 6 on Monday night was much awaited by PKR and PAS leaders in Jempol because the Palong and Serting resettlement areas are where Umno is strongest in Negeri Sembilan.

More than 2,000 people went to hear Anwar speak despite a police road block at the main road leading to the venue of the ceramah. It was the largest attendance ever at any of the 16 resettlement schemes in Palong.

“By Felda Palong standards, a 200-strong crowd would already be a big achievement for Pakatan,” he said. “Umno has had a strong presence here for decades.

“Two years ago, we had to struggle to get 20 people to start a party branch. But this year, we have opened eight PKR branches in the Palong schemes. Felda Palong 6 is our strongest branch so far. There are 412 members, most of them children of settlers.”

Rebin said he believed Monday night’s crowd would have been twice as big if not for the televised football match between Malaysia and Indonesia in the Jakarta Southeast Asian Games.

Umno has always scored big election wins in Jempol, which is a parliamentary seat, and Palong, a state seat. But cracks have begun to appear since last year, with several legal suits brought by settlers against the Felda management.

Because local PKR and PAS leaders have been helping the settlers with these court cases, many former Umno supporters are beginning to warm up to the opposition parties.

At Monday’s function, Anwar spoke on a wide range of issues, from those of national concern to those plaguing Felda settlers.

The Felda-specific Pakatan manifesto promises the following:

The dismantling of Felda Plantations Sdn Bhd, which is increasingly being seen as so profit-motivated as to ignore the welfare of settlers

Intakes of new settlers

A housing scheme for second and third generation settlers

An end to the manipulation of palm oil grading at the expense of settlers

The Association of Felda Settlers’ Children (Anak) today filed a court injunction against the public listing of Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH) on Bursa Malaysia.

Anak is also seeking injunctions to block Koperasi Permodalan Felda Malaysia Bhd’s (KPF) extraordinary general meeting from being convened on Jan 5, and in disposing of its assets in Felda Holdings, according to a Sinar Harian report today.

"The fact is this action (public listing) is simply to gain RM3 billion in funds for a certain agenda come April next year,” Anak chief Mazlan Aliman was quoted as saying.

Mazlan added that KPF, which is the majority stakeholder in Felda Holdings, is already performing well on its own and the status quo should remain.

In this contentious issue of FGV listing, this question has never been answered. Do FELDA settlers have any standing whatsoever to dispute the listing of businesses run by FELDA at all? FELDA Holdings is managed by FELDA employees. FELDA global is operated by FELDA professionals. So why should FELDA settlers and others siding with settlers be irksome busybodies?

So, we have to establish whether settlers have a standing in the first place to even question the listing. If they don’t, they should shut up for as long as they get free benefits and are taken care of.

If we do indeed establish that settlers have standing and deemed interests, then we move on to ask, is the FGV listing a sellout to FELDA? So the second of our attention should be directed to the question whether the listing is a sellout.

Let’s face it- the interest of settlers is indirect here and is of little consequence. It should be a non-issue. As long as they get whatever form of benefits- bonuses, end of year cash handouts, futsal fields, indoor stadiums, hockey turfs, MRSM College, FELDA University- they should be thankful. Just on account of being a settler- they get all these. Where else can they get this kind of preferential treatment of being cared for from cradle to grave?

FELDA can continue giving all these, if it makes money as a whole. If it has the reserves from which they appropriate and apply as in the above examples we gave. And FELDA does indeed have the reserves. They even sued those who accused FELDA of being bankrupt. At its height, its reserves were RM 40 billion, then RM 4 billion and today- we don’t know how much. Maybe this listing will top up the depleting reserves. We don’t really know.

Hence the government which owns FELDA is greatly disturbed when people question the proposed listing of FELDA’s businesses not directly owned by settlers nor operated by them. Settlers tend their 10 acre lots- that are all they do. It’s FELDA- through FELDA Holdings and FGV that does business. Settlers have no business to interfere in these organizations run professionally.

Settlers derive direct benefits via ownership of the FELDA plots they have on which they worked on. They get benefits when they sell their FFB at FELDA owned mills at specific price level. Their interests are looked after better if they get good price for FFB, if the extraction rate of the oil is done truthfully, if their planting operations costs have been good. Their interests are better off, if the output per hectare is as good as estates operated by United Plantations, KLK, IOI and so forth.

Otherwise, the other benefits derived from being automatic members of FELDA Cooperative, or other extension organizations are indirect. Settlers are excluded from the management of these organizations. FELDA places professionals to run Koperasi Peermodalan FELDA for example, professional managers run FELDA Holdings and so forth. Settlers benefit by virtue of being settlers and are recipient of gratuitous benefits arising from businesses run by FELDA employees. In other words, they get free benefits, so why bother?

Do settlers even have a standing even to question the listing?

The answer is an emphatic yes. They do have standing because they are the real stakeholders in any of the businesses run by FELDA. Because they are the real stakeholders- because the businesses that are run by FELDA and the assets FELDA acquires, all spring and are derived from property rights of FELDA settlers. They are derived from the land owned by FELDA settlers or should have been owned by FELDA settlers. More important, because that was the reason why FELDA came into being in the first place. States gave FELDA the authority land- to be given to settlers. FELDA was only an authority vested with specific duties. It has no business withholding the land with which they were entrusted to give out. If the land was supposed to be given out to settlers and FELDA did not, then it has always been under an implied duty to operate the land for the benefits of the settlers.

Harapkan Pagar: Is Felda listing in the interest of settlers?

If the groundswell of settler and public opinion runs in the other direction, there can and should be a delay until all the concerns are fully and transparently accounted for.

COMMENT
During the past few months, the government and Felda authorities have been engaged in a public relations exercise aimed at persuading Felda settlers as well as the Malaysian public that the proposal to float Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH) on Bursa Malaysia is in the best interests of the settlers.

But is it really so?

What has emerged from the government-controlled media has been almost exclusively the government version as to why the listing should go ahead.

What is missing are answers to the questions raised by the opposition and independent analysts on the real benefits to settlers as well as a credible response to allegations that the interests of settlers are being subordinated – and even marginalized – in favour of other parties.

The stakes involved in the proposed listing exercise go well beyond those of any past Bursa listing exercise.

At stake are not simply concerns of how well the offering will be received by investors; the initial IPO pricing; and other market-related issues.

This is not your ordinary listing exercise aimed at reconciling the interests of a small group of initial shareholders with those of other new parties; neither is it a question of how much gains the initial settlers and shareholders can make from this listing exercise.

There are over 100,000 settler households; 240,000 members of Koperasi Permodalan Felda.

Together with their immediate and other dependent family members, Felda settlers and their children number several million of our citizens. This very large group has formed the backbone of our agricultural community.

The implications of the listing will not only affect their immediate future but it could also reshape the structure and dynamics of the rural peasantry. Many of these settlers presently eke out a modest but sustainable living from the land.

The impact on settlers

Modernization and adaptation to changing market conditions are important and necessary. But is this listing exercise the right way forward?

The overall objective of the exercise must not simply be about “unlocking value” or “creating the largest plantation entity in the world” or “expanding Felda’s international business footprint” – rhetoric that is as misleading as it is misguided.

It should be about protecting the interests of our rural peasantry, ensuring that they remain landed (the original mission of Felda was to give land to the landless) and making sure that the benefits of any restructuring primarily accrue to them and are not hijacked by other parties.

In what way does the listing advance settler’s income and general wellbeing in the short, medium and long term?

This needs to be fully elaborated and explained with data and figures, based on various best and worst case scenarios. In particular, there is a need to address the concern that the scripts which the settlers will get in exchange may be disposed for quick gain.

What is the downside for settlers? Again this needs to be carefully evaluated – not simply by general statements by anti- or pro-government politicians or supporters but by credible and independent analysts that are given equal coverage in the media – especially government-controlled media of radio and TV – so that the public, including settlers, can have access to and weigh the different points of view.

Internet-driven disquiet on the listing

Many of the dissenting opinions in the Internet on the listing have been ignored by the authorities.

They relate not only to the details of the swap agreement affecting the different stakeholders but also to issues of governance and the windfall gains to key individuals and interest groups that are major players in the deal making.

On governance, unsettling questions have emerged with regard to FGV’s track record with losses allegedly running in the hundreds of millions ringgit during the past few years. Concern has also been expressed as to whether the exercise may be a devious plan to cover up massive losses incurred, especially by FGV’s foreign investments.

Other opinions expressed are more pungent and the sample below gives some idea of the intense behind-the-scene battle on the proposed listing.

A: One thing I can see – is that every bugger is shifting allegiance depending on where they can make a quick buck!

As for the listing – I am still not sure if it really is about helping the Felda settlers – because the folks who will really make the big bucks are CIMB and certain individuals who will get the bulk of the pink forms with very large blocks.

As I see it they want to move the profitable part of Felda into the loss making part – list it, take the plum bits and then cash out.

B: R… is obviously off his rocker and becoming too big for his britches. He is hiding behind this new pressure group so he can extract contracts from Felda well before it gets listed. This is an old trick of crony capitalists, though R… takes the cake – after all, who is he to say yes or no to Felda’s listing – why does the government need his permission to list Felda.

Also, how looney can this businessman get, to say he will examine the terms of Felda’s listing before he blesses the deal… he really is power hungry enough to throw the dice at Felda, hoping he will become it’s chairman (that is why he is stirring the pot for Isa Samad to be sacked as Felda chairman) and if this does not work out, he has already got in his hand the hapless and clueless Samshuddin, the head of Felda settlers, to join him in creating a pressure group to bait for contracts. This R… and Sam are real shams – anything to promote their self-interest.

C: The reality actually is that the peneroka will not benefit from this listing. The listed entity will take away about 1 billion in Felda profits and [will] gain a one-off payment to Felda of about six billion. The profit taken away will impact social and economic programs for the Felda settlers and if you do simple maths, the listing money will only last six years.

Then where will Felda get money to pay for these programs? The harsh reality is that the peneroka land is not as profitable and when you take the “cash cow” land out of Felda that does not belong to the peneroka but from Felda proper and transfer to FGVH, you have a serious long term hole you need to cover.

This is the actual truth and that’s why the DG wants a thorough a study to be done first. He is a true Felda man and is a good man. The second generation Felda folk do not understand this and only see the short term again. The opposition is saying to the peneroka not to support listing as they will GIVE the land to them.

This complicates things as other people now think that the DG supports the opposition. This is sooo not true. He is a loyal civil servant and the reasoning behind his questioning is purely for the good of the peneroka and NOT BECAUSE OF SUPPORT FOR THE OPPOSITION. People need to be clear on this.

D: The DG Dzulkefly has never been a opposition man. He’s always been a Felda man! He understands the background and the motives of Felda. The listing will benefit settlers in short term cash but the bulk of the money will be gained by CIMB and a select group of cronies. He like many don’t want to sacrifice the profitable part of Felda for the loss making one… – the Felda DG is being victimised and unfairly treated by Isa and Najib. He needs all the support and his side of the story to be told.

E: FGV is part owner of FH and many of the personalities in the management may be the same, but they are DEFINITELY NOT the same entity. FH has a separate set of shareholders, KPF. FH has a relatively focused set of business activities, most of them related to the plantation industry in one way or another, and has solid financial results. The only real disadvantage to KPF shareholders is their holdings are not liquid i.e. they are not freely tradeable shares. It pays very good dividends, though.

FGV has this other set of business, messy , unfocused, many of them making losses. The fact is, even if there is no wrongdoing, FGV has clearly got itself into business ventures that it doesn’t understand and doesn’t know how to manage.

Knowing Bolehland culture, the “No wrong doing” assumption is a very questionable one. Merging a solid, profitable, non-fully owned subsidiary into a troubled holding parent, while legal, raises many ethical questions. ….Most of the time the majority shareholders who mastermind such deals are either up to no good, or using it to cover up past mistakes or misdeeds.

Ignoring the growing groundswell of opposition

In the coming days and weeks, the public may finally get the opportunity to get a better picture of the pros and cons of the planned listing from the anti-listing side.

This is happening as those opposed to it are organizing a groundswell which is making it impossible for the government, Umno and Felda authorities to ignore.

On Dec 29, eleven non-governmental organisations joined hands to form the Save Felda Movement (GSF) aimed at stopping the listing of FGVH.

Leading the group is National Felda Settlers’ Children Association (Anak), which has been revealing wrongdoings in the land authority and was one of the first of the stakeholders opposing the listing.

Last week separately, four KPF members filed an injunction to stop the public listing of FGVH. The court set Jan 4 for hearing the application, a day before KPF’s extraordinary general meeting on the listing scheduled on Jan 5.

It is important that the government does not clamp down on the public discourse. Other important voices such as those responsible for coverage in the media business community also should do the right thing by permitting the different stakeholders equal access to having their arguments disseminated.

This coverage needs to be supplemented by the perspectives of independent analysts from business and other professional groups since the ramifications of the listing are of national concern.

In the latest development the president and chief executive of Felda Global Ventures Holdings, Sabri Ahmad, has said that plans to list on Bursa Malaysia in April 2012 are on track and that FGVH was firm in its mission to get the listing done within this time frame.

That is his opinion. If the groundswell of settler and public opinion runs in the other direction, there can and should be a delay until all the concerns are fully and transparently accounted for.

The Felda authorities should not fear delay. Indeed it should welcome delay or even abortion of the proposed listing if this is found to be the better option for the settlers.

Children of the Federal Land Development Authority, who have teamed up as a non-governmental organisation called Anak, and KPFB members will file a judicial review within this month to challenge Isa's appointment.

"Isa cannot be KPFB chairperson as he is not a Koperasi Permodalan Felda member," Anak president Mazlan Aliman toldMalaysiakini.

"So how can someone outside KPF now head it? We have filed complaints with SKM on this and we have also written to the International Cooperatives Alliance to protest Isa's appointment," Mazlan (right) said.

It has been reported that a Felda subsidiary, Felda Global Ventures Sdn Bhd, is to be listed on Bursa Malaysia, with KPFB being used as the means for this.

KPFB is one of the richest cooperatives in Malaysia, outperforming even Bank Rakyat.

The planned listing is seen as a bid to undermine the rights of the settlers and open the ownership of their land to investors, including foreigners, once Felda Global Ventures is listed.

This, Mazlan said, would further undermine the original intention of setting up Felda, which is to help poor rural Malays.

Anak is one of the NGOs in the Save Felda movement, which wants to prevent the listing exercise on grounds it will not benefit the settlers and will instead bring into question the settlers' ownership of the land.

On Dec 29, the NGO group convinced former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, said to be one of the pioneer founders of Felda during the tenure of former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein, to be part of the movement.

KPFB postpones meeting

In a related development, KPFB postponed a meeting with its members it had scheduled for today to pave the way for the listing of Felda Global Ventures.

In the High Court in Kuantan, which was due yesterday to hear the application by four settlers challenging the holding of the extraordinary general meeting (EGM), the application was struck out after the court was notified of the EGM postponement.

According the settlers' lawyer Mohd Haris Mohan Abdullah, the application was filed on Dec 23 and they only obtained the court documents on Dec 28.

Following this, Haris said, Kuantan High Court judge Mariana Yahya struck out the application, with the liberty to file afresh if the EGM was fixed for another date.

Felda Global Ventures and KPFB, which were represented by Mohd Hafarizam Harun, also confirmed that the High Court in Kuantan yesterday struck off the injunction filed by the settlers.

It is not known when KPFB plans to hold its EGM, but Mazlan said they were prepared to face any eventuality, including filing the judicial review of Isa's legitimacy as KPFB chairperson.

He reiterated their call for the removal of Isa as Felda chairperson and Sabri Ahmad as chief executive officer of Felda Global Ventures, saying their appointments within less than a year have "caused a turmoil" in the assets of Felda.

He said after Raja Muhammad Alias, who served as chairperson from 1979, left Felda in 2001, it had RM5 billion in reserves, "but sadly today, we do not know how much remains".

It was also reported recently that Felda has taken a RM6 billion loan from the Employees Provident Fund.

KUALA KUBU BARU, Jan 6 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak sought today to reassure Felda settlers that his government’s plans to list Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH) would not see the community shortchanged, saying the move was necessary to strengthen the land authority’s position in the global market.Speaking to hundreds of settlers from surrounding schemes here like Felda Gedangsa, Felda Soeharto, Felda Sungai Tengi and Felda Sungai Tengi Selatan, the prime minister said the colonists would continue to reap long-term benefits and high dividend payouts from the move, promising he would “never betray the legacy of Felda”.

“I give my guarantee that Felda folk who have been receiving bonuses, will continue to get bonuses; those who have been receiving ‘duit raya’ will continue to do so; the RM40,000 interest-free loans will continue to be given out and, Insya’Allah, we will continue with socioeconomic projects like building suraus and so on.

“As the son of Felda’s founder, surely I would not betray my father’s struggles... my father who has painstakingly developed Felda... I aim to do my best so that the Tun Razak legacy will not only be protected but improved according to present times,” he said.

Najib had announced the listing in his Budget 2012 speech.

But the proposal has met with opposition from the PAS-aligned National Association of Settlers (Anak), which claims the listing will be inequitable to some 200,000 settlers tilling the land in Felda schemes across the nation.

Under the listing proposal, settlers will swap their 51 per cent stake in Felda Holdings — which made RM760 million last year — for a 61 per cent stake in FGVH, whose international subsidiaries lost some RM500 million up to 2010.Najib acknowledged opposition to the government’s plan, saying it was not unexpected, but added that it was likely born out of a lack of information.

“Whatever it is, we must trust that the government that has developed Felda [and] given 1,001 benefits to the Felda folk, would not betray the legacy of Felda,” he said.

Najib said listing FGVH would help see the land development authority better managed and able to compete in the international market.

“It will be managed more professionally, we will gain partners from international firms to work with us so we will no longer merely be just exporters of palm oil, we must also conquer the global market... Only then we can reap greater returns,” he said.

Najib added that the listing should be complete within “four to five months”.

He accused the opposition of attempting to spread falsehoods and fear that the listing would see settlers getting the wrong end of the stick, claiming this was because they feared losing votes to the ruling coalition.

“They are afraid that when we fulfil our promise, Felda folk will reap many benefits and this, in turn, would affect their chances in the polls,” he said.

Anak recently warned that Barisan Nasional (BN) could lose major electoral support from Felda settlers if it goes ahead with its controversial plan to list FGVH on the bourse.

Anak president Mazlan Aliman urged Najib to withdraw the proposal, and cautioned that failure to do so could result in Felda settlers voting against BN in the upcoming general election.

National Felda Settlers’ Children Association (ANAK) has upped the ante seeking to remove Felda chairman Isa Abdul Samad as Koperasi Permodalan Felda Bhd's chairman by taking the matter to court.

The whistleblower group had earlier twice notified the Malaysian Cooperative Commission that Isa was not qualified to lead KPF because he was not a member of the cooperative.

ANAK head Mazlan Aliman said a judicial review would be filed within this month to challenge Isa's appointment.

Justifying the decision to go through legal procedure, Mazlan said Isa’s status as KPF chairman violated Section 43 of Cooperative rules and regulation which state that only Felda settlers, their families and Felda permanent employees could become KPF's members.

“Isa is only a contract employee. If the court declares Isa’s position as KPF chairman as legal, we will oppose. We have stated before that this violates KPF’s cooperative laws, as Isa has yet to fulfil two years as a member of KPF,” Mazlan, who is also PAS central committee member, told Harakahdaily.

Earlier this week, Felda settlers scored a temporary victory after KPF’s extraordinary meeting planned to confirm Isa as its chief as well as to allow disposition of its assets in Felda Holding that will pave way for the public listing of Felda Global Ventures Holding (FGVH), was called off.

Mazlan attributed the cancellation to continuous pressure from ANAK and cooperative members who disputed Isa’s position in the cooperative.

He also took prime minister Najib Razak to task for his refusal to engage settlers’ dissatisfaction over the listing of FGVH.

“He cannot just pass to his officer on an issue as big as this,” he lamented.
Last week, ANAK and 10 other non-governmental organisations joined hands to form the Save Felda Movement (GSF) aimed at stopping the listing of FGVH.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will stop the controversial public listing of Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH) if it wins federal power in the next general election.

PKR Felda and Orang Asal bureau chief Suhaimi Said told the PR convention here the listing went against the original spirit of federal land development scheme Felda as it meant settlers would no longer own their land.

“The (Felda) companies, built on the hard work of the settlers, will be gambled on the stock market,” he said.

FGVH, the commercial arm of Felda, is scheduled to go public by the middle of this year as the world’s largest listed plantation entity.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had announced the listing in his Budget 2012 speech last year.

But the proposal has met with opposition from the PAS-aligned National Association of Settlers (Anak), which claims the listing will shortchange some 200,000 settlers tilling the land in Felda schemes across the nation.

Under the listing proposal, settlers will swap their 51 per cent stake in Felda Holdings — which made RM760 million last year — for a 61 per cent stake in FGVH, whose international subsidiaries lost some RM500 million up to 2010.

PR also pledged today to revamp the current Felda profit allocation system, which unfairly awarded farm workers more money than settlers, Suhaimi said.

“After contributing so much to the country’s economic stability, many Felda settlers still live in poverty,” he pointed out. He added that affordable housing would also be provided to Felda settlers, and new land to their descendants, in order to uplift the community.